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AYRSHIRE MONOGRAPHS NO.25 The Street Names of Ayr Rob Close Published by Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History Society First published 2001 Printed by The Cromwell Press Ltd, Trowbridge, Wiltshire Rob Close is the author of Ayrshire and Arran: An Illustrated Architectural Guide (1992), and is presently co-editor of Ayrshire Notes. He has also contributed articles to Scottish Local History, Scottish Brewing Archive and other journals. He lives near Drongan with his long-suffering partner, Joy. In 1995 he was one half of the Scottish Handicap Doubles Croquet Champions. Cover design by David McClure. 1SBN 0 9527445 9 7 THE STREET NAMES OF AYR 1 INTRODUCTION Names have an important role in our lives: names of people, names of places, and names of things. In an enclosed, small community, these names remain informal, but as the community grows, and as travel and movement become commoner, then more formalised names are required, names which will prevent confusion. Formal and informal names can exist alongside one another. During the course of preparing this book, I agreed to meet some friends on the road between ‘Nick’s place’ and ‘the quarry’: that we met successfully was due to the fact that we all recognised and understood these informal place names. However, to a different cohort of people, ‘Nick’s place’ is known as ‘the doctor’s house’, while had we been arranging this rendezvous with people unfamiliar with the area, we would have had to fall back upon more formal place names, names with a wider currency, names with ‘public’ approval, whether conferred by the local authority, the Post Office or the Ordnance Survey.
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